Little Brother
by ManaketeSmoocher
Summary: [Fashion AU] Before he was a major designer, he was a depressed, closeted trans man who relied on alcohol far more than was healthy.


**A/N - I use Xander's Japanese name (because I'm salty) so if you're wondering who the heck Marx is, there's your answer**

 **Also, this is part of my Fashion AU and the basic premise of that is that Leon becomes a world famous fashion designer who is also a single dad but then he meets the other parent of his kid (my MU) and there's cute family stuff. This comes before all of that tho, hope you enjoy!**

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"Is she still not back?"

"Wha- oh, no." Camilla yawned. "I'm sure she's fine" She drew her robe tighter around herself as she sat down on the counter. "Is that what's keeping you up?" Marx stopped his pacing to look at his sister.

"She's never come back this late." He sighed, running his hand down his face. "Camilla, how can you be so calm about this?" The woman shrugged.

"I did the same when I was in college. You just never noticed." She sipped the water she'd gone down to retrieve. "I'm going to bed. You should do the same, you know."

Marx nodded, briefly accepting her hug before she made her way up to her room. He stopped pacing, sitting on the couch as his leg bounced up and down. The next few hours were spent reading and nodding off every so often. It was four in the morning when he heard a thud at the door. The sound of someone putting their full body weight on the door without warning. Marx waited several minutes before deciding his sister was too drunk to unlock the door by herself. When he opened it, she stumbled straight into his chest as her previous support (the door) was suddenly gone. He took a moment to take in her unfortunate appearance.

Lily had her shoulder length hair, which was normally neat and slicked back, in a state of complete disarray. Her clothes were wrinkled, practically falling off of her, and Marx could safely say that the large, white, buttoned shirt she was wearing didn't belong to her. She'd lost her shoes at some point, and her feet looked swollen, as if she'd walked a great distance. It was a sad sight to take in even without being able to see her face, which Marx could only assume looked awful from the amount of alcohol she must have had since leaving home. She kept her forehead on his chest, and he heaved a sigh.

"Lily, why do you do this to yourself…" He muttered as he helped her inside, though as soon as she moved to take a step on her own, she collapsed.

Marx moved to help his sister up, but she slapped his hands away almost violently. His concerned gaze was met with a hostile, bloodshot one from her, and he frowned. She drew the large shirt over her head and scooted herself to lean on the couch. Sighing, he sat on the same couch as close as he dared. After waiting a few minutes, he said her name in a questioning tone, which seemed to prompt an odd sort of muffled wailing. He silenced himself, trying to figure out what was going on. There wasn't anything in particular that had happened earlier that day, so he couldn't imagine why she was upset other than the fact that she was drunk.

"Lily." He tried to keep his voice authoritative, but her wailing seemed to grow louder. It made him wince slightly. "Your sisters are asleep." He stood before hooking his arms under hers to pull her up. She slumped onto him as she stopped wailing, likely trying not to put weight on her feet because they were in pain.

"Why should I care?" She slurred out, though Marx could barely understand her.

"Well, we expect everyone to be respectful of others in our family." He sat her down on the couch, and she mumbled things under her breath. "As one of my younger sisters, I generally expect you to act appropriately." Lily continued to grumble, curling up and facing away from him. "Gods, why does she do this to herself…"

"..."

"... Lily?" Marx prompted, as her mumbling had ceased.

"..." He heard sniffling.

"No, no, don't cry. It's going to be alright." He wrapped an arm around her, pulling her into his chest a little awkwardly. Comforting crying siblings was usually Camilla's job. "What's wrong?" She choked slightly before her sobs intensified, making it near impossible to understand her next words.

"I don't want to be just another one of your sisters!" She was weakly beating her fist against his chest as she cried into it.

"Bu- Lily, you've always been my little siste-"

"Maybe I want to be your little brother!" Lily practically shouted, and Marx went silent.

He let his blubbering, drunk little _brother_ cry into his chest until _he_ was all cried out. Lily, or whatever his name actually was, didn't move, keeping his face buried in Marx's chest until he fell asleep. Marx carried him up to his room after a few minutes of rubbing his back and thinking about the situation. It was clear to him now why Lily did what he did, whether it be the drinking or the constant troubled look on his face when someone misgendered him. He only wished he'd told one of his siblings sooner, and when he was sober. Tucking the younger man into bed, Marx went off to his own room to catch a few winks of sleep before the sun rose.

Unfortunately for him, his brain decided that wasn't allowed, and he was plagued by thoughts of what could have happened if he'd never told him he was trans. He'd been going out frequently since the day he was of legal drinking age, and Marx almost found it hard to believe that he hadn't gotten himself pregnant with the sheer amount of sex he'd had. A second thought reminded him that there was more than one way to have sex, and he pushed those musings out of his mind. He didn't fall asleep until the sun began to rise, and he was woken by his alarm only a few hours later. A weary yawn left him before he dragged himself out of bed, changing into his clothes for the day. He went down the stairs, finding Camilla cooking breakfast. The woman was still wearing her robe, and she glanced at him as he sat down. A cup of coffee was placed in front of him momentarily, and as he sipped it he noted that it was black, as he liked it.

"Long night?" She asked as she returned to frying eggs.

"... Four in the morning." Camilla let out a low whistle.

"I'm surprised she remembered the way home." Marx let out a short, tired laugh.

"I'm just glad…" He paused. "You know, I don't understand how you can deal with emotional people."

"Oh? Was she really that bad?"

"Yeah, actually…" Marx debated telling her what their drunk younger sibling had said that morning, but decided to hold off until he had the chance to talk about it with the other in a sober state of mind. "I'm just glad that's usually your job."

Camilla hummed, and they fell into an easy silence. Marx slipped his reading glasses on as he read his book, drinking his coffee at an easy pace. Elise came down the steps just as her sister finished cooking, and the three of them had a pleasant breakfast. The sisters left the house together, Camilla driving Elise to her high school. Marx called his work, letting them know he wouldn't be showing up that day. Normally he would leave his brother to his own devices and head to work, but there were important things to talk about. He was glad Ryoma was currently taking care of Siegbert, as he was sure he wouldn't be able to talk with his brother _and_ take care of his one year old son at the same time. The hungover young man didn't make his way downstairs until three in the afternoon, when he laid himself down on the couch with a groan.

"Water?" Marx questioned, not moving from his armchair.

"And pills." He responded vaguely, his voice muffled in the pillow, but Marx knew what he meant. The older brother returned with the aforementioned items momentarily. "Thanks…"

"Anything for my little-" Marx moved his gaze from his book and saw that he was gulping down the pills and water. His face seemed to fall as he anticipated the next word. "- brother." He nearly choked on his water, putting the glass down so suddenly Marx nearly expected it to shatter.

"I- excuse me?" Marx received a look full of shock, doubt, and hope.

"Anything for my little brother." He repeated with a frown. "Unless that's wrong."

"Oh jeeze, what did I say to you last night…" The younger covered his face, his words muffled.

"Well, it was sort of hard to understand you through the alcohol and crying. You didn't say much before crying yourself to sleep." Marx nearly laughed at his brother's groan.

"I'm an idiot." He uncovered his face before drinking more water. "Shouldn't you be at work?"

"You came home at four in the morning and brought up a serious subject, so I thought we should talk about it before our sisters get back."

"I don't want to talk." He crossed his arms, bringing his legs up onto the couch and turning away from Marx.

"Lil-" He cut himself off. "Brother. I want to confirm that you weren't spouting nonsense." There was a long moment of silence.

"... Leon." Marx gave him a questioning look. "That's… That's my name." The next thing he said almost seemed to be an afterthought. "Not that anyone I know uses it."

"It's fitting." Marx smiled at him. "My little brother the lion." Leon turned to face him, though he still had his legs drawn up to his chest.

"You're not… You don't have anything else to say…?" He sounded rather doubtful.

"What is there to say? Are you expecting me to be angry?" The question was rhetorical, but Leon answered it by biting his lip. "I'm not angry, though I'm a little upset you didn't tell anyone sooner. It would have saved us all some grief." Marx moved from his armchair, having long discarded his book and reading glasses. He sat himself next to Leon. "Have I said anything in particular to make you feel that way?"

"... Not really…" He practically mumbled his words. "I was just scared, and… you're already so disappointed in me for drinking so much, and- and being at stranger's houses at ungodly hours of the morning. I don't even have a job and I do nothing around the house. I don't know why you let me stay with you, so I was just- scared that you'd finally kick me out."

"We let you stay because you're family, and we love you." Marx put an arm around him. "I'm not disappointed in you, Leon. I've just been worried, and I'm glad you're letting me have this conversation with you." Leon sniffed, resting his head on his brother's shoulder.

"I'm sorry…" He wiped his nose. "For spending so much time and money on alcohol and sex." Marx rubbed his back, letting him talk at him. "I-I just- strangers could call me the right name. I didn't have to reintroduce myself, and th-the-" Leon wiped his eyes, feeling embarrassed that he was saying so much, but wanting to lessen the weight on his shoulders. "The sex made me feel like nothing else really mattered in that moment and I just… I didn't want to think about anything." He hiccuped slightly, trying and failing at wiping his tears away, which were caused partially by emotions in general, and partially because of his headache.

"It's okay, Leon. You don't need to do that anymore. I can talk to our sisters while you're resting if you'd like." Leon shook his head, wincing immediately afterwards.

"I don't want to be more of a coward than I already have been." Marx smiled at him.

"At least get more rest." Marx shifted slightly. "Are you going to your room, or do you want to stay out here with me?"

"With you." His response was almost immediate. "B-brotherly bonding, right?" He smiled a little nervously, not used to being able to say things like that.

"Of course. Just let me fetch you more water and get my book before you fall asleep on me." Leon blushed.

"I'm not going to fall asleep on you!"

"Of course not."

Marx returned with the aforementioned items momentarily. Leon curled up beside him, leaning against him and claiming that it was cold. Marx read, his younger brother caching snippets here and there when his head throbbed less for that moment. In the end, Leon fell asleep on him anyways.

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 ** _Word Count: 2,074_**

 **Despite this fic being about Leon, it's all in Marx's PoV**

 **I'd like to say that I sort of borrowed Leon's birth name from the only other trans!Leon fic I've ever seen. It was on Ao3 and umm yeah okay;;; I'm also keeping it because he's the younger brother, and Elise is the younger sister. Elise's personal skill is 'Lily's Poise' so idk it kinda matches with that. Camilla's personal skill is 'Rose's Thorns' and they have/had (not sure) a cat named Rose don't question my logic**

 **I hope you enjoyed reading this ;v; I'm kinda nervous about it;;; The original reason I formed my trans!Leon headcanon was because it doesn't make ANY logical sense for him to be mean to Forrest otherwise and if you want my logic/reasoning for this please just send me a PM!**

 **IMPORTANT (to me at least)!**

 **I'd like to direct your attention to my profile, where I detail all the fics I'll be posting (at least one fic/chapter per day) until the 12th of August! There's a poll over there, and I'd love it if you'd vote on which story/AU you'd like to see more of! If you do that it would mean a lot to me because I'm pretty sure I've only had 3 voters so far and that's not really enough, haha ^^; Voting doesn't close until the 19th of August, so you have time to get your vote in and check out everything I'm offering, but I'd like it if you'd care about my writing enough to do so eventually**

 **The fandoms I'm writing (other than my 3 Fates AUs and MC fic) are Awakening (3 MC fics), How to Train Your Dragon (1 MC fic), and Harry Potter (1 MC fic, Marauder's era)**

 **Thank you so much for reading, I hope to see you again!**


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